Northern High School's Blue Ribbon Tour of Excellence Celebration on April 24th

Dr. Lillian Lowery, Maryland State Superintendent of Schools, will make her Blue Ribbon Tour of Excellence at Northern High School on Thursday, April 24, 2014, from 10:00 – 11:30 AM. The celebration is to recognize Northern High School as a 2014 Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. Northern High is one of six schools in the state to receive the honor.

The Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a state and national program that recognizes and honors schools that exhibit high performance and/or significant improvement in reading and mathematics achievement as measured by Maryland’s assessments. Schools must meet rigorous standards developed by the Maryland State Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Education. These schools are all high achievers in reading and mathematics, and many serve a significant number of economically disadvantaged students. Other achievement indicators include school leadership, professional development, instructional approaches, and parent and community involvement.

Northern Garrett High School offers a rigorous program of merit, honors, and Advanced Placement instruction in all core areas. In addition, college credit courses in English and math are offered through a Distance Learning Classroom. Every student at Northern Garrett has a four-year plan with an identified pathway within one of four clusters: Arts and Human Services; Business, Management, and Finance; Engineering and Technology; and Life Sciences and Natural Resources. The FFA organization, one of eleven CTE programs located within the school, was named as the State of Maryland’s Career and Technology Student Organization of the Year. Northern Garrett was recently recognized as one of the Nation’s Best High Schools and named a Silver Medal School by The U.S. News and World Report. The overall pass rate on both the Algebra and English High School Assessments is above 95 percent. In addition, with 40 percent of its students on Free and Reduced Meals, 81 percent of these students obtained passing scores on all required High School Assessments. Northern has always achieved Adequate Yearly Progress and is now categorized in Strand 1 based on their School Progress Indicators.